Automatic surgical lancing devices of various kinds are known to the art, primarily for the use of permitting a patient to draw a sample of his own blood. To accomplish this, it is generally required with respect to most people to provide an automatic means for driving the lancet into the finger. Lancing devices are also used in the clinical setting, where a care giver draws blood samples from several patients. To assure a sterile procedure, it is desirable for the automatic lancing devices to be cheap enough for one-time use, to avoid transmission of any infection by a second use.
Examples of integrated surgical lancing devices in the prior art include those described in Shirley et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,988; Maggio U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,374; and Campbell, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,809. Additionally, Munsch et al. U.S. Ser. No. 933,843, filed Nov. 24, 1986 and entitled Lancet Cartridge discloses a multiple use automatic surgical lancing device in which a series of separate lances are provided for sequential use in a single cartridge.
For definitional purposes in this document, a lance is a sharpened piece of stainless steel that pierces the skin. A lancet is a lance enclosed in a typically plastic housing to facilitate grasping the lance and loading it into a lancing device. A lancing device is a spring loaded mechanism that can be cocked and released to propel the lance forward for accurate and less traumatic puncturing of the skin. Lancing devices generally have a removable target piece adjacent the site of skin puncture called the platform which can become contaminated with body fluids during use. In contrast to single patient use, such as self testing by diabetics, situations arise where a care giver is drawing blood samples from multiple patients using a reusable lancing device, wherein the platform should be changed along with the lancet between patients to avoid any risk of cross contamination and the spread of infectious disease.
Unloading and loading lancets and changing platforms on reusable lancing devices is time consuming and costly. Frequently, to avoid this hassle, cost and risk, a care giver will merely hold the lancet and stab the patient's finger to draw a sample. This technique does not control depth of puncture and is painfully crude.
An integrated lancing device is a combination lance and lancing device in a typically single use disposable unit. The entire device may be discarded between patients and the time consuming steps of loading and unloading lancets and platforms is eliminated. Such devices as described in the above-referenced patents are generally not cost effective. It is a goal of this invention to provide the medical community with a cost effective integrated lancing device that can gain widespread usage and help stem the spread of infectious disease.
Since it is important for overall health reasons to use only sterile lancets and lancing devices in drawing blood, it is desirable that lancing devices used in a multiple patient situation, such as a blood bank, be reliably pre-sterilized during manufacture, used once, and then discarded. Thus, there is a strong need for the unit cost of such integrated surgical lancing devices to be reduced to a bare minimum. Also, patients on their own also need such a device.
In accordance with this invention a reliable, simplified type of integrated surgical lancing device is provided, being much smaller than previous designs and using much less plastic material than those of the prior art. However, the integrated lancing devices of this invention can perform functions equivalent to the lancing devices of the prior art, while having a significantly reduced unit cost and being significantly smaller, for desired space saving of the device when stored in bulk. The integrated lancing device of this invention is easily cocked and triggered, for successful patient use. Also, while desirably for one-time use, it is possible to use them on a repeated use basis, using alcohol sterilization of the lance or the like, if that becomes necessary.